To rapturous applause, Prince Harry and Meghan took to the stage at the closing ceremony of the 2018 Invictus games in Australia.
Harry told the competitors he was ‘humbled and inspired by your determination, your service and your sense of humour’ while Meghan praised the ‘unshakable bond’ between servicemen and women and the ‘camaraderie and close-knit sense of community’ she had experienced at the Games.
The games capped off a royal tour of Australia which by all accounts had been a resounding success.
Their was a huge buzz around the newlyweds with the Duchess of Sussex having just announced she was pregnant.
It was the started of what was dubbed ‘Meghan-mania’.
The Press were equally positive in their coverage of the trip as they praised the newly minted royals on their first major tour.
In the Daily Mail, the ‘beaming’ couple were described as the ‘epitome of cool as they stepped on to the boat, with Prince Harry lovingly holding on to his pregnant wife’s hand’.
However, behind the scenes, the Sussexes’ relationship with their royal aides was not so rosy and the couple’s obsession with how they were being perceived by the public allegedly led them to clash with their team.
Writing in his royal bestseller, titled Revenge, Tom Bower claimed that in contrast to ‘glowing photos’ of Harry and Meghan being recorded daily, the mood in Sussex headquarters was ‘miserable’.
The royal author wrote that one cause of the tension was when Meghan decided to bring her own people down under on top of the Palace staff.
‘Although the couple had arrived with four staff – Samantha Cohen, Amy Pickerill, Heather Wong and Marnie Gaffney – Meghan had decided she wanted to be surrounded by people she trusted,’ Bower said.
‘At her request, Jessica and Ben Mulroney had flown in from Canada to provide round-the-clock support. Mulroney doubled as Meghan’s stylist, as she worked through her “show-stopping” wardrobe.’
With the Mulroneys by her side Meghan was reportedly ‘abrasive towards her four female staff and even towards the local British diplomats’.
In one particularly dramatic outburst, Bower claimed that Meghan ‘allegedly threw a cup of tea into the air’.
The tension within Sussex HQ was apparently partly caused by the Duke and Duchess’ obsession with their media coverage during the games.
Bower wrote Meghan’s anger may have been ‘partly fuelled by Harry. Every night, he trawled social media, searching for snide comments on the internet. Every morning he and Meghan turned on their phones to surf the internet. Thin-skinned, they were inflamed by the slightest criticism’.
‘Then, both bombarded their staff with demands for retribution and removal of the criticism.’
It was at this time that fresh stories about Meghan’s father were reported in the America media including claims that Thomas Markle had first heard Meghan was pregnant on the radio, that he snorted cocaine and visited a Playboy club in Manila.
Despite the stories having emerged in the American press, Harry allegedly ‘blamed British newspapers for those reports’.
Bower said: ‘But the only jibe he could attach to the accompanying British journalists was a report that one of Meghan’s outfits cost £19,660. As a sign of Meghan’s intentions, she also wore a Serena Williams brand jacket. Soon afterwards, it was promoted on Instagram.’
This coverage still angered Meghan, causing her to become ‘irate’ and blaming the senior royal aide Jason Knauf and his staff for not suppressing the stories ‘Hollywood-style’.
‘Her mistake, she would lament, was “believing them when they said I would be protected”,’ Bower wrote.
He added: ‘Unsurprisingly, Meghan’s fury influenced Harry’s attitude towards the small British media contingent accompanying the couple. “Thank you for coming, although you weren’t actually invited”, he sniped. He also brusquely snapped unprovoked abuse at a TV reporter.’
‘The altercation bewildered the media. Beyond the Sussexes’ entourage, no one was aware of the turbulent background in Kensington Palace and at the Sussexes’ headquarters in Sydney.’
And rumours of Harry and Meghan’s troubled relationship with Jason and the other royal aides were growing.
This included allegations that Meghan sent emails to staff at 5am and that her assistant Melissa Toubati quit after she was driven to tears by the duchess.
But no falling out was as dramatic as the one which occurred between the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and Jason.
In fact, Meghan’s falling out with Jason was so bad that the Duchess did not even let him know when she was making a surprise appearance at an award ceremony, much to the anger of the royal press pack.
Writing in his biography of the royal staff, titled Courtiers, Valentine Low claims Meghan deliberately undermined him in a ‘very public way’ leading to some ‘awkward moments’ for both the Duchess and the aide.
Low said that ahead of their trip to Australia in the autumn of 2018, Harry and Meghan’s working relationship with Jason was ‘over’, but he remained employed by the couple until March 2019 despite having ‘little to do’ with them.
Before he publicly stood down, Meghan was already spotted out and about with her new royal aide Christian Jones showing in a ‘very public way’ who her new ‘golden boy’ was.
The most public snubbing of Jason came in December 2018 when Meghan made a surprise appearance at the British Fashion Awards at the Royal Albert Hall to present an award to Clare Waight Keller – who designed her wedding dress.
Low wrote: ‘The royal press pack were very put out that they had not been told of this appearance in advance, and several of them did not hesitate to express their feelings to Knauf.’
But the reason the communication secretary hadn’t give them prior warning about the appearance was because he also did not know Meghan was attending the ceremony before she was on stage.
On top of this, Meghan also allegedly refused to let Sam Cohen or her assistant private secretary Amy Pickerill tell Jason about the event.
‘It was an astonishing example of how badly their relationship had deteriorated that Meghan did not even trust him to keep a simple confidence,’ Low said.
Even Meghan’s relationship with Jessica – which was seemingly cherished so much during that tour of Australia – has come to an end.
Meghan and Jessica have never spoken publicly about their fallout – but the Sussexes have snubbed Jessica on a number of occasions.
Over the past few years, rumours of a rift between the two women have been swirling – as the Duchess appeared to distance herself from her former BFF after Jessica was caught up in a ‘white privilege’ race row with blogger Sasha Exeter.
Jessica is said to have ‘taken offence’ to a ‘generic call to action’ post Sasha had shared about the Black Lives Matter movement.
In a follow-up video, Sasha said: ‘What happened next was a series of very problematic behaviour and antics […]
‘I’m by no means calling Jess a racist but what I will say is this: She is very well aware of her wealth, perceived power and privilege because of the colour of her skin and that, my friends, gave her the momentary confidence to come for my livelihood in writing.
‘Textbook white privilege really, in my personal opinion.’
Following the blogger’s claims, Jessica issued three public apologies, however she still faced consequences and was dropped by numerous television networks.
